If you believe the price to be good, just buy it and replace the blade w/ a standard one. Still money saved.

I have a 2007 model snapper with the Kawasaki and ninja blade and I bag more than I mulch. It bags great. I mow my yard once a week, so it does not get that tall and it is bermuda. But it has worked flawlessly for me.

Might be worth another look. Nothing cuts like an old aluminum deck snapper.

Here is a link that might be useful: Small Engine Warehouse

big lumber, thanks so much for the link. Looks like the 4.0 quattro would bolt right up, turned to the 9:00 position. Size wise, it appears to be nearly identical to my 92908 classic that sits there now. And cheap compared to a new one. Any other considerations you can think of, like throttle cable or lack of a deadman control on my old mower deck?

Thanks again

You will have the best cut and bagging experience - especially with a high vac model - if you equip the mower with the standard blade and the factory "lift kit". Mine cut awesome, the lawn looked like a carpet. Sorry I sold the machine.

Kevin,
Happy to hear you are giving it a second look. I repowered mine with a tecumseh tvs120(5 horse) 17 years ago. Put some steel wheels on it and it is still running. If you are able, get the most powerful engine you can. As far as the safety stuff, my snapper does not have any compliant safety features and for the life of me I cannot remember if the replacement engine had a brake or not.
I see your other post. The posters there may have more experience in helping you. I would figure a kill switch and not worry about the blade kill.
Let us know how it goes.

Peace

Greg I haven't put "wings" on my blade. I know snapper has them for the steel deck models. I may be wrong but I believe the wings can only be used on steel deck HiVac's.
I do agree, those old HiVacs cut so well.

Hey biglumber, I believe you are right about the lift kit, Hi Vac steel deck only. I took the plunge yesterday and bought a new one. My Honda is for sale on Craigslist this morning.

Greg B
Portland, Oregon

The "Ninja" blade has two cutting edges that mulches the grass up into almost a powdery consistency which probably not be great for bagging. I would replace it with a hi-vac blade.

I remember the commercials for Snapper Hi-Vac mowers when I bought mine (1988). They stated they could pick up a quarter off the driveway. I never tried that!

I hope the new Snappers are as good as the old ones. I just ordered a Snapper Model P2160KWV Hi-Vac walk behind to replace my very old similar Snapper. My main use for this mower is trimming and picking up maple seeds out of the grass. I use side discharge when the grass is long. Then, in the fall, I use the bagger to pickup leaves and seeds. It has a good size bag.The feature I will miss on the new mower is the blade clutch. For some reason, very few machines still have a blade clutch. This new mower will have the Kawasaki 6 hp engine. I think I made the right choice. Charles Ranheim

I think you'll enjoy this mower for your needs. For bagging, you may wish to purchase the blade that has two small bolt holes for little "wings" to be adding. It really creates a strong suction under the deck for those pesky seeds and pine needles, etc. Also, I'd suggest making sure the engine is running near the top of it's legal operating speed: ~3300rpm. There is a big difference in power and suction with the loss of just a few hundred rpm - remember power:speed is not a linear equation, but rather a function of the _square_ of the speed.

I don't have a tac to measure the speed, but I can use an ocilliscope to measure the time between plug fires and calculate the RPM if I have to. I never owned a small engine tac. Thanks for your input. I will measure and set the speed if necessary after the initial break-in. Charles Ranheim

Charles, you purchase something called a "Vibra-Tach" for under $15 if you Google it. It's super-simple, but accurate. OTOH, if your scope works inductively and can give you a frequency in Hz, then I guess you'd just divide by 120 to get rpm. Seems workable to me!

Treysit Sirometer (vibra tach). I have had one of these for years. Very handy especially when you are cranking up the blade tip speed on the snapper hi vac's. They are probably running 20 bucks by now. Great device.

What are the specs on the "Vibra Tach"? Will it work on engines with one or two cylinders? Do Auto stores carry it?
It would be simpler to use than an oscilloscope if it is accurate. Charles Ranheim

It's a really, really simple device. It is literally just a wire on a spool, and you twist the spool cover to shorten or lengthen the wire that is sticking out of the outlet. At some free length, while holding the device flush against the engine case, the wire sticking out will find it's natural frequency and suddenly go into an obvious and wide oscillation. You just wind the spool in and out until you find this point (with the engine at WOT). The spool is calibrated in rpm numbers, and so you read the rpm that it says once the wire oscillates, and you have your speed. The only brain power required is to realize that it will also oscillate at multiples of the true rpm. So if you are at WOT on your Briggs and get an oscillation at 1500rpm and at 6000rpm, you know you need to bring the spool back to 3000rpm and verify, because that will be the true rpm (unless your engine is _really_ broken!). By the same token, it will work on a 2-cylinder engine just fine. I suppose on some really nicely balanced engine setups and firing orders (such as an even-firing inline 3-cylinder or 6-cylinder) it would be harder to see the oscillation, but otherwise it will theoretically work on any piston engine.

Matty21,

This mechanical vibrating tach sounds shaky to me. I found a good way to time the Kawasaki engine on my JD 325. I just measured the frequency of the AC sign wave coming out of the alternator windings. I initially used a scope to see how many cycles were produced between plug fires. By using this information, I could calculate the required alternator frequency to obtain the desired engine RPM. Sometimes there is more than one way to "skin a cat", as the old saying goes. I have to be very careful when getting near the high voltage going to the spark plug with an oscilloscope. The scope front end can't handle the voltage that goes to the plug directly. I have to make a small pickup loop and hold it near the plug wire to observe the spike when the plug fires.
Charles Ranheim

Very simple to use. I believe it has a part number in both the tecumseh and briggs parts book.
It's what I use.
You would be done by the time you pull out your 'scope'.